Taipei: The Taipei City government announced plans to impose a maximum penalty of NT$100,000 (US$3,090) on the operator of the YouBike public bicycle rental system following a system failure that disrupted services for over 20,000 users on Wednesday evening.

According to Focus Taiwan, the outage began at approximately 6:34 p.m., affecting YouBike stations in Taipei, New Taipei, and Taoyuan, with normal services resuming only after midnight. The failure was attributed to a software update on September 27 that resulted in abnormal data checks and increased server traffic, as reported by YouBike Co.

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an expressed that the incident significantly infringed on public rights and directed the Department of Transportation to enforce the maximum penalty for violating contractual obligations. He further demanded a comprehensive report and improvement timeline from the operator.

In response to the disruption, YouBike issued an apology, committed to optimizing its system, and promised compensation for the affected users. Meanwhile, New Taipei authorities indicated they would independently decide on any penalties, but urged the company to consider trips made during the outage as part of the 30-minute free-use period.